Attention:
The following review contains some suggestions to MOUTHSHUT from an insanely sane person who has observed some pitfalls(not jog falls!) on this site, and would like to see at least a couple of them being attended to after going through them.......A(O)men!
I will not use this review to mention the many good points of MS and my experiences with it. Instead, will concentrate upon the areas where MS and Members can improve upon after briefing about the site.
MOUTHSHUT: Is an interactive and amateur(ish) international forum (predominantly Indian) where you find many opinions (You say reviews!) and a few reviews (the way I see it) posted on varied subjects (material, non material and immaterial)by its members that excites the homosapiens (who can read!) which primarily..
a) Gives information about a product to enable consumers/readers to make decisions.
b) Enlightens the consumers/readers of some facts (Gyaan/knowledge) about some topics/products/services, which may be chosen by the consumers/members themselves through Mouth pad.
c) Consists of members who can rate, comment and write reviews without much policing from the site and form the vital role of movers and shakers of the site. These members are allowed to have their own profile pages with a lot of useful options where they can write about themselves, have trust list, Distrust list, performance statistics etc. (few take this an opportunity to enhance their business prospects!!)
Structure: The structure of the site is pretty good with the color combinations having a good aesthetic feel, Access to topics pretty basic, speedy access (b’cos it is devoid of many images) and some really useful concepts like the M2M, Comment alerts, Review alerts and the Mouth Pad to name a few.
Reviews: The bread and butter of this site.
There are somewhere b/w 20 to 40 reviews posted on this site on a daily basis of which roughly 5 to 10 qualify as useful and readable ones. Of course there are exceptions like the day Swagen invaded this site with his 25+ reviews and now feels that the site has robbed his freedom of expression!!
What happens to the rest of the 15 to 35 Reviews which are opinions?
Chances are that almost all of these reviews are posted by people who are new comers/new members to the site who do this because the site has minimal regulations on the content of the product you are reviewing. Many a times you get to see that the review does not give sufficient information about the product (I treat this as a comment) and in some cases, the review is totally irrelevant to the topic.
To the one who reads it, it looks like it is more of a comment than a review. I believe that the two words mean different. It sounds a bit harsh on the new comers and would say that we certainly have a way out provided the new comers are willing to put some time on the site.
Changes required..
1) Posting a review:
The website should monitor people (online) who are posting their reviews of the content and should guide them accordingly. Employ 3 people who will work in shifts throughout the day and will be responsible for releasing the reviews after some basic scrutiny. These guys will also
judge the Reviews of their contents and allow them on to the site if they are good enough. You can have some tools where in you can guide the reviewer online with his or her mistakes.(A bit difficult to implement but possible!)
To the reviewer: Please make an honest effort to gather useful information about the topic before you post your review because it always helps the reader/consumer when it is backed by some facts. If possible, list some useful website links which are relevant to the topic.
2) The topics for reviewing:
Make the review topics a bit more versatile for the members to post the reviews.
For example, under tourism in Karnataka, do not make any localized topics like tourism->India->Karnataka->Gokarna. I feel Karnataka is more than enough and creating more sub topics through mouth pad will only complicate things with many Topics getting rejected.
Another Example, 5 best reviews on MS can be renamed as 5 best reviews for the period so and so (’cos there may be better reviews appearing after you have put forth your review on the topic..get it?)
Peace comes under overseas destinations, which again is not in the appropriate place.Introduce topics which have generalized terms and not specific. The sub-topic of the review can be taken care of in the title of the review (point no 1 will help).
3) Search engine: I feel the search function of this site is limited to the topic name and does not list any reviews based upon some keywords (It can be done!)
4)Star writers: Do not make star writers of members who seek revenge and controversy through their reviews. Star writer in itself should be indicative of the member’s responsibility in terms of writing the reviews in an unbiased manner and also should be based upon his or her active participation in encouraging new members, rating, commenting etc which promotes this site (the positive way!).
5) Competitions on best reviews on certain topics for a period voted by members:
Pick some reviews (say top 5) under some categories for the last 3 months and allow the members to rate the best among them. Announce the winners after 3 weeks of starting the competition. Get it?
For Example under English movies, select the top 5 reviews for 3 months and have a separate page where you list the reviews by the members and allow the members to vote the best under that category (English movies). Do not show the status (vote count!) during the voting. After announcing the winners, you can reward the winning member with some points (Don’t worry about prizes!!)
6) Buffer of reviews for the last 7 days: Due to the many number of reviews posted on a daily basis, many a times some reviews, though good in content get flushed out without a decent exposure because of the LAST 30 reviews stay rule. This definitely can be worked upon.
7) Addressing issues : The management is a bit dormant when it comes to addressing these issues and it would do this wonderful site a world of good if they act pro-actively and act on some shortcomings.
8) Forwarding Reviews: Some reviews can be forwarded to the concerned authorities if the reviews address some genuine problems or faults or highlights some good points about the product/service. I guess this would be too much for the asking.
9) One for all: One mail and multiple recipients feature should be provided to the members which will enable the members to send a single mail to many members without having to go to each profile page and using copy-paste technique. Faisal can send mails to the members and we cannot do the same...discrimination? (Don’t throw me out!!)
10) No. of Reviews limit: A member should not be allowed to post more than 3 reviews on a single day which eliminates the flooding of reviews by any member if any (Has the site recognized this as a potential problem?)
11) To the Members : Few members are content with posting their reviews on this site and are not that keen on reading, rating, commenting and encouraging new members. Further, it would be a good idea for a member to set the review alert on a topic which has been reviewed by him or her. It makes some sense doesn’t it?
Please move on to the comments section for the rest..